The Hawaii Fuel Cell Test Facility, a 10-year-old research project sponsored by the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Hawaiian Electric Co. has been renamed the Hawaii Sustainable Energy Research Facility, or HiSERF.

The name and logo of the laboratory — which has received more than $12 million in funding from the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Department of Energy as well as the industry — were changed to reflect its expanded mission to help the state reach its clean energy goals through the study of variable energy storage technologies and smart-grid applications as well as fuel cells.

Energy storage has the potential to add more renewable energy and lower system costs, Scott Seu, vice president for energy resources at Hawaiian Electric, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. (NYSE: HE), said in a statement.

The HiSERF facility will remain at its 4,000 square-foot space at Hawaiian Electric's Ward Avenue facility.

“We appreciate the donation of space and other support for this facility by Hawaiian Electric Co.,” Rick Rocheleau, director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, said in a statement. “This in-kind support – and the opportunity to work directly with Hawaiian Electric personnel at their facilities — has contributed to the success of the research here."